.NET and AI
The AI ecosystem is overwhelmingly documented through a Python lens. Search for "how to build an AI application" and you will receive Python tutorials. Search for "AI in C#" and you will receive Python tutorials with an apologetic footnote. These terms cover the C#/.NET libraries and language features that exist for AI development, because they do exist, and they're actually quite good, and no, I will not be taking questions about why I didn't just use Python.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Semantic Kernel | Microsoft's SDK for integrating LLMs into .NET, the closest thing to LangChain in C# |
| ML.NET | Microsoft's framework for traditional ML in .NET: classification, regression, anomaly detection |
| ONNX Runtime | An inference engine for running ML models locally (PDF for neural networks) |
| NuGet | The .NET package manager (npm for the C# ecosystem) |
| Nullable Reference Types | A compiler feature killing null reference exceptions, the billion-dollar mistake fix |
| Pattern Matching | Concise, readable branching logic that makes if-else chains weep |
| Records | Immutable, value-based types with zero boilerplate. Data that documents itself |
| File-Scoped Namespaces | One less indentation level per file, greater than the sum of its parts |